Protein family: cold water first
How to get spit-up out
Milk partly digested by stomach acid. It yellows fast and smells sour, so rinse it soon.
Do this first
Wipe off the curds
Fresh stain
- Wipe off the curds
- Rinse cold from the back
- Sprinkle baking soda to cut the smell if you can't wash yet
- Enzyme pretreat 15 minutes and wash warm
Dried or old
- Scrape or brush off any crust
- Soak in cold water with enzyme detergent for 1 to 8 hours
- Then soak in oxygen bleach if a yellow mark is left
- Wash warm and dry in the sun if white
- Fabric care
- Safe on cotton, terry, fleece.
- Time
- 15 min
- How to tell
- Look: white-yellow, curdled bits; Feel: stiff when dry; Smell: sour
Where this fix comes from
- American Cleaning Institute, Stain Removal Chart
- Household folk practice, checked against the guides above
We check every fix against these published guides. We do not run a test lab of our own.
Before you start
- Test on a hidden seam first.
- Never mix cleaners.
- Keep it out of the dryer until the stain is gone.